Philippine airlines joining oneworld

[jrfsp]

I didn’t see this one coming.

Philippine Airlines to Join oneworld Alliance

www.philippineairlines.com

Will be nice to have another airline in the region.

They don’t fly to Europe which is a bit of shame however.

 

[anat0l]

Definitely didn't see this coming at all. I realise that joining an alliance probably wasn't ideal when financially precarious, and PR had been that for a very long time, but wow...

Hope this doesn't make CX too uncomfortable as an alliance member that it may push them out of ow and into *A.

So the new ow lounges at MNL will be Mabuhay Lounges? They'll need to step up their game.

 

[Scarlett]

I wonder how CX feels about it?

 

[HirafuHeartAttack]

Well this just made the huge dump of PAL reward seats a little more interesting, though I’ve heard NAIA is a bit of an ‘experience’ to transit through?

Also interesting that this seemingly came out of nowhere when it seemed like Starlux would likely be the next Asian OW carrier…

 

[33kft]

Excellent news for us as we split our time between here and PH. Not sure what it does for the greater network, but it's always helpful to have a greater selection of routes and carriers.

 

[Mwenenzi]

Excellent news for us as we split our time between here and PH. Not sure what it does for the greater network, but it's always helpful to have a greater selection of routes and carriers.

PH joining OW does mean more routes and carriers. Just ff earn/burn to OW airline frequent flyer programs some time in the future,
PH already codeshare with some OW airlines. Is a full ff partner now of AS and QR. FF burn(award) partner of QF now

 

[anat0l]

Well this just made the huge dump of PAL reward seats a little more interesting, though I’ve heard NAIA is a bit of an ‘experience’ to transit through?

Within terminals is probably OK. Between terminals can hurt.

That said, last time I needed to transfer MNL T2 to T1 (not PR at all), they have these mini shuttle busses to do the job, and they took an internal road rather than back onto the main roads.

The shuttles were quite small and not really suitable for a bus load of pax all with a checked bag each. I'm not sure what it would have been like if transferring to T3.

 

[LionKing]

Congratulations to Philippines Airlines and OneWorld.
I hope this will mean dirt cheap Status Credits when travelling to Asia!

 

[05flyer]

Definitely didn't see this coming at all. I realise that joining an alliance probably wasn't ideal when financially precarious, and PR had been that for a very long time, but wow...

Hope this doesn't make CX too uncomfortable as an alliance member that it may push them out of ow and into *A.

So the new ow lounges at MNL will be Mabuhay Lounges? They'll need to step up their game.

I’d imagine CX might be even more strongly opposed to Starlux’s entry to OW now too.

 

[SYD]

About time. This had been speculated for ages.

I wonder how CX feels about it?

Presumably ok since they didn’t veto it. Although they have vetoed JX.

 

[moa999]

I’d imagine CX might be even more strongly opposed to Starlux’s entry to OW now too.

It allows them to run the.. we just added a new airline in Asia, let's see how that fits in first argument.

 

[am0985]

Thought this looked likely when we saw Qantas and Qatar both added PAL as a partner a couple of weeks ago.

Haven't flown them before but MNL is a handy city to fly J out of - I can find MNL - FRA return on Qatar for about $3400 for multiple dates next year. Flying J up to MNL and being able to use QF lounges would be handy for these purposes. Just hope they add some European routes so they can be a realistic option for using QF points all the way there...

 

[J-P]

Hope this doesn't make CX too uncomfortable as an alliance member that it may push them out of ow and into *A.

Star Alliance already has both Air China and Shenzhen Airlines, I can't imagine why Cathay would want to quit Oneworld for that.

 

[oz_mark]

Hope this doesn't make CX too uncomfortable as an alliance member that it may push them out of ow and into *A.

Cathay is a founding member of oneworld, so they had veto rights.

(And according to Starlux, Cathay did just that to them. You'll need to translate 〈星宇航空股東會〉張國煒：遭國泰航空反對加入聯盟是不爭事實 需要時間進行)

 

[elanshin]

A reasonable expectation given their partnerships with ow airlines over the past 12 months. Perhaps oneworld has learnt not to have "airlines looking to join" announcements thrn taking forever.

Gives oneworld another airline on the Pacific stranglehold they're trying to achieve.

 

[jase05]

Great for OW to get another airline. Don’t mind the PR product and MNL isn’t that bad either apart from the ordinary lounges. Always got some incredible J fares ex Asia to Australia and should get some decent QPoints for them

 

[LionKing]

As OneWorld is growing in Asia, I am very concerned about they are not growing in Europe.
Time to add LOT and Aegean to fill in the gap in Europe, and add back LAN.

 

[elanshin]

As OneWorld is growing in Asia, I am very concerned about they are not growing in Europe.
Time to add LOT and Aegean to fill in the gap in Europe, and add back LAN.

There's rumours about Condor looking to join. But the real problem with Europe is that currently EU airlines are all undergoing consolidation into the 3 big groups (Avios, Lufthansa and KLMAF). It really doesn't have too many unalligned airlines or airlines that aren't being consolidated. There could be one more airline in central or eastern Europe - yes.

The real gap in OW is South America and Africa.

 

[am0985]

Cathay might not see PAL as major competitors anyway. PAL mostly serve E/SE Asian destinations with a few in the USA and a couple in the Middle East. They have nothing in Europe for example.

They're also likely serving a somewhat different profile - CX will get more business and premium travellers, PAL will have more visiting friends/relatives etc.

This will probably lead to PAL codesharing on CX flights to Europe too. Can see them using the extensive options to Asia via BA, AY, MH etc too as codeshares. Doesn't seem they have the resources to start an extensive European network of their own.

 

[anat0l]

As OneWorld is growing in Asia, I am very concerned about they are not growing in Europe.
Time to add LOT and Aegean to fill in the gap in Europe, and add back LAN.

LO is part of Lufthansa - not happening. Aegean is already Star Alliance and, steady as it goes, probably has no reason to jump.

I thought oneworld is doing somewhat OK in Europe with BA, IB and AY. Main rub is that their hubs are kind of on the periphery of Europe, cf. when AB was still a member (was still alive). But most of the other strategically and "acceptable" carriers are all in other alliances anyway, usually well entrenched.